On July 25th I turned the big 23! I know I know I am getting up there =)
Malaika was sure to be the first to wish me Happy birthday every hour on the hour throughout the wee morning hours. I tried to be as thankful as I could.
My mom had the day off so she wanted to take me out to breakfast and take me to the zoo for my birthday gift. I LOVE THE ZOO!
I could go to the zoo every day of the week and never get sick of it. Every time I go, there is something there I didn’t see before.
I also love to go because I get a good workout without even noticing. By the end of the day I am tired, tanned (ever so slightly), and twitter painted. I love animals!
We also took Malaika with us and it was fun to see her reaction to the animals. Last time I took her she was more amused by the leaves and the grass.
After that my mom and her boyfriend offered to baby-sit Malaika so Edwin and I could go out for a birthday dinner and movie. This part of the night was all a surprise. Edwin had been planning for a few weeks and wanted me to have a nice birthday. It was such a nice evening; it reminded me of old times! He came home with a dozen roses which is ALWAYS wonderful! First we went to Du’s grill; it is a little hole in the wall teriyaki chicken place that has THE BEST chicken, rice and salad. It is over by Portland Bible College and we used to go there a lot because it was yummy and cheap! Then we went to Bullwinkle’s family fun center and played video games for a few hours. We collected almost 700 tickets so we got to pick out a few trinkets to take home to Malaika. THEN we went to the new Will Ferrell movie “Stepbrothers”. Edwin is a HUGE Will Ferrell fan. It was definitely a laugh! He also got me my new phone! I was in desparate need of a new phone since mine was shorting out.
I also talked to my dad and he and Cindy got a $25 gift card to the movie theater and a $25 gift card to Claim Jumpers (which is an excellent restaurant) and my friend Maria also got me a Gift card to Nordstrom which will be put to good use! Thank you everyone for a great Birthday!!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
My Birthday – a day at the zoo
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Summer days
We have been pretty busy these last couple of weeks. Here are some of the things we have done.
* Painted the outside of the house. It had to be done before the end of June. We still need to paint the trim and finish some touch-up work but it is looking really nice.
* Fourth of July- We had our friends Nicole and Everisto over with their two daughters Lauren (5 yrs old) and Amelie (11 months old) It was really nice and relaxing to hav them over and BBQ. Lauren was even brave enough to swim in the pool.
* We bought a pool! It is about 4 ft deep and it has been so nice on the really hot days. We have been trying to get Malaika used to it but it is not her favorite
* Went to LaGrande- This was a nice trip. Susanna and I went down for 3 days to go see my dad and "try" to see as many friends as we can. I decided that next time I am going to let people come to me.. it was so hard on Malaika to be in the hot car and drive around so much. I felt bad by the end of the 3 days she was exhausted. I was really nervous to make this trip with her because I didn't know how she would be on a 4 hour drive. Surprisingly she slept through the whole drive. I did not even have to stop. She is such a good baby. It was so nice to see my dad and Cindy. Malaika really likes Cindy. It is always good to see my dad interact with her (She is still not to sure about him.) We are hoping to make the trip again in September so for those o you I didn't get a chance to visit maybe we can see you then!
* When I got back from LaGrande I was making dinner when someone knocked on the door. It was our next door neighbor and she wanted to invite us to a cookout that they were putting together for a few of the neighbors. It was on Saturday evening and we told them we would bring some pie. I was really excited to meet the rest of the neighbors since we have not lived here very long and I have not been brave enough to go meet them.
We went there around 6 and they had set up a swing for Malaika and had some baby crackers for her to eat. (Most of our neighbors are elderly so they all LOVE malaika and think she is the best thing ever) It was fun to get to know all the different personalities. It is also nice to know we are in a neighborhood that is safe and fun and the neighbors actually care about eachother. Around nine they wanted to set off some leftover fireworks. Talk about "leftover" There was about $100 dollars worth of fireworks and they lasted for over an hour! Malaika is not a big fan of fireworks yet, so edwin had to take her inside. It was a really fun night and I am looking forward to more of them.
*This week has been pretty uneventful. We have ben trying to organize the house still and put some finishing touches. I think we will never be done with that. Today I am taking Malaika for some more professional photo's. I love living in a big city there are so many free lance photographers wanting to get more baby photo's in their portfolio's so I get killer deals. Today We are going to a free session in greshem and she will give us one free 8x10 as well as unlimited online photo's that have a lower resolution. Which is perfect for us because we don't really print the pictures. I will post some of them for everyone to see.
*OHHHHH and the last thing
I decided to go to an advisor because I have been taking a lot of random classes while taking my nursing pre-requisites. Turns out I had 99 credits just with PCC which is enough to get an associates degree!!!!! So all I needed to do was fill out some papers and I need to take it in and pay 10 dollars and I will get the certificate! This was such a blessing to find out. I felt like I have been in school for so long with nothing to show for it.. but now I will have something to put on my resume! Hooray! I will also be able to apply for 4 different nursing schools in the fall.. so PRAY that I get into one of them.
I will post Malaika's 8 month post this weekend. Hope everyone is having a great summer!!!
Friday, June 20, 2008
7 Months - "Mama"
That’s right she is saying MAMA!!! It makes my heart happy every time she does it. The first time she did it I was trying to get her to crawl and she was crying, I told her if she said mama I would come and get her. Within seconds she belted out; “MAMA!” Edwin and I were like WHAT!? So now whenever I leave the room she cries and says mama, whenever she wants me to get her she says mama. It is pretty cute!
This month has been very hectic with moving and finals I have felt pulled in MANY directions. Malaika has been a trooper and made it through it all with me. I finished my final Anatomy class and got a B!!!! Hooray! I never realized how hard these classes were until I started them. There have been many sleepless nights this term. I have this week off and then I start my summer classes. I am taking Pathophysiology and an online typing class. I have one more class to complete and then I can apply for the nursing program. I AM SOOOO READY! Okay enough about school.. Lets talk about Malaika.
What she is doing this month:
*Definitely sitting by herself – She pulls herself into a sitting position from laying and can catch herself now if she is falling.
*Crawling- She cracks me up! She gets on her knees and rocks back and forth. Then she crawls for a few second and then drops to her stomach and does and army crawl. She can make it from one side of the room to another if the incentive is right.
*She pulls her self to a standing position. I was going through her clothes and had some totes out. Had her sitting on the floor with some toys and I needed to run into the other room to get something. While I was gone I hear the scream of a life time. I ran back in and there she was standing by herself. She wasn’t even holding onto anything! She had pulled herself up using the tote and then didn’t know what to do so she was scared. I couldn’t believe it when I walked in!
*I cannot leave her on the bed anymore for naptime. I left her on moms bed while I did dishes. About 15 minutes later I heard a THUD followed by a scream. She had fallen off the bed.. UGH! It is so scary! I kept a close eye on her the rest of the day to make sure she was okay. I was so worried that she had fallen on her head.
*She is eating all sorts of foods. I just gave her mango’s the other day. We have been taking our food and grinding it up and giving it to her. Her favorite food so far is applesauce. She also loves chewing on carrots. I can just give her a raw carrot and she will chew on it for an hour! (It gets little tech marks on it.hehe)
*She has 2 teeth that are through on the bottom and one on top that is starting to come in. Teething is so tough for babies! I feel so bad for her sometimes. She had a fever of 102.4 for 4 days when the teeth were breaking through. And then once that finished she had horrible constipation. We have to use a glycerin suppository to help her out. POOR THING
*She is still sleeping with us… I think we are ALL to attached
*She is wearing size three diapers (actually squeezing into them until this pack is gone)
*She is wearing 12 to 18 month clothing
*She loves Music! Anytime she hears a commercial with music she perks up and starts dancing. She wiggles and slaps one hand on her leg
*She is as beautiful as ever!!!
*She loves laughing!!! She is starting to laugh at little things we do. Sometimes I will be laughing at edwin or something on TV and she will laugh too.
Everyday I look at her and I am SO Blessed! She is a really good baby who loves learning new things. She is so persistent and I can tell she is going to be so smart when she is older. I never knew that I would love a little person this much!
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer break so far!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
6 month check-up- Feva!
Malaika had her 6 month check-up last week and it went.. okay
Her stats were:
Weight: 19 lbs 6 oz
Length: 28 inches long
He said that her head is pretty big for this age (This cracked me up) But he said it is proportionate to the rest of her body. She is currently in the 95 percentile. So she is still looking like she will be over 6 feet.
I had a few things I wanted the doctor to check on.
*She has been rubbing her ears so much that they have been bleeding so I wanted him to check and see if she had and ear infection/ she doesn't! YAY! He said that it may be her way of discovering her ears.
* Separation anxiety- She has been having a hard time when I am not around. Poor Edwin, every time I leave she cries the whole time I am gone. The doc said it is normal and by the time she is 2 or 3 she will become a daddy's girl! He just said to keep trying and eventually she will come around.
Her shots went okay this time. She only had to have 2 pokes and she made it through them ok. Later that evening she was really irritable and just cried and cried. I checked her temp and she was 101.3. I gave her some tylenol and we all went to bed. around midnight her fever had spiked to 102.7 so I called the advise nurse. They said that if it reached 104 to take her to the emergency room but for now just give her some more tylenol and a wet washcloth. By morning the fever was 100.9 and then it went down throughout the day. It was scary to see her like that though. We have been lucky so far and I have not had to deal with a fever or sickness. she looked so sad just sitting there and she felt like a furnace. We made it through ans she is back to her normal self now!
